Day 2 - Plyometrics, Pleasure, Pain and Procrastination.

One word: discombobulated.

Thats how I felt doing this plyometrics (intense jumping) and squats workout. Seriously, I was so wobbly after finishing the hour. But fortunately, I didn't throw up.

Seriously though, P90X is really intense. I have not broken a sweat AND achieved soreness in my muscles EVER like I have during my two days here. I was watching "The New American Gladiators" and honestly, I feel like after completing my 90 days, I can definitely try out for that show! I am kinda understanding what boot camp, training camp or summer basketball camp feels like. Today was very very leg intensive with tons of squats, jump squats and other leg exercises. Seriously, I love it. I am glad I can give it my all and have something to pour my heart out into.

For today's Tony Robbins lesson, I learned something very powerful.

EVERYTHING WE DO IN LIFE WE DO TO AVOID PAIN AND GAIN PLEASURE.

Simple as that. When I procrastinate, I am avoiding an action that I perceive to be painful and I go do an action that I perceive to be pleasurable. Tony says that procrastination is a silent killer because it immobilizes people and makes us give up so much freedom.

So in order to break through in areas of my life that I am putting off, avoiding not doing or simply regretting doing, it is because I associate more pain than pleasure to this action.

Interestingly enough, I associate more pleasure to the results of P90X and that outweighs the little pain I feel doing these work outs. I KNOW what my outcome is with P90X. I have already visualized it. Guess what, I am already living the pleasure of feeling pumped and buff, so I can out maneuver any pain and override that. Amazing! Its a good lesson to know as I move along and work harder.

Before pictures...

Ok, so for me, these are really ugly to look at. Embarassing. Yeesh. But you know, this is what motivates me. I don't care how I look right now, except that I am kissing this look bye-bye!

Day 1 of 90 - Basic front:



Day 1 of 90 - Basic front, pose:



Day 1 of 90 - Basic back:



Day 1 of 90 - Basic rear, pose:



Day 1 of 90 - Basic side, pose:

Day 1 - P90X, Tony Robbins and more

Wow.

That was one freaking intense workout. So much so that I threw up after an hour of push-ups and pull-ups. Before I hurled though, I felt horrible, but after throwing up a part of my lunch, I actually felt a lot better.

But seriously folks, that was one hell of a workout. 24 sets of push ups ranging from dive-bomber to wide stance to military style and then going to pull-ups of the similar variety, all while having that man on my DVD player tell me what to do next and at what intensity level, it gives a whole new meaning to working out. I don't think a personal trainer could have pushed me this hard. Trust me, I used to work at 24 Hour Fitness. Some trainers were intense, but most were simply too interested in talking/flirting to actually train. The relationship with this DVD session was more than I expected and certainly reinforced the mantra of the P90X workouts - "BRING IT!!"

My biceps are hurting as I type this. Intense!

Here are my raw numbers for benchmarking purposes:


I will post my pics in a separate post with tags to keep them organized.


As for Tony Robbins, here are the key lessons for today:

1. Demand more from myself than anyone else expects!
2. Take on role models and model their actions to create my own success.
3. Power is the ability to ACT. To change my life, I should focus on making decisions and TAKING ACTION.

Well said Mr. Robbins, well said. I am certainly demanding more of myself through P90X, modeling Tony Horton by way of P90X and then taking action by doing P90X everyday for the next 90 Days! So far, Tony (Robbins) will agree with Tony (Horton)!

Just to clarify, the Tony Robbins CD sets are to hone all aspects of my life and help me use my personal power in all areas of my life, not just fitness. But many of the key learnings for the first day are motivational and vague, and I imagine as the set progresses, I will have a chance to focus and hone in on key areas of my life that I want to change. For now, though, I am applying what I learned to P90X and fitness. I know I applied the key learnings to my life today!

Day 1 - Purpose, prep and focus

Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to challenge myself to succeed in my spiritual, physical, emotional, financial and intellectual life. I have 90 days to change the way I feel, think, and act in everything I do. I know it is a seriously lofty challenge, but I know that if i tackle my spiritual, physical, emotional well being, I can pave a path to success for my intellectual and financial well-being as well.

Why am I doing this? Simple. I am fed up with my life and how I operate. Certainly I am doing a few things well, but in general, I don't think I am doing enough. Combined with the fact that I am turning 25 (!!) in exactly 53 days, I am anxious. I plan on having a lot of momentum as I approach my birthday and use that as one of my milestones. The key is to improve little by little over a course of 90 days, and then look back so see the progress. I am very excited to do this and I am looking forward to the changed perspective that I will have at the end of this first 90 day challenge.

How I plan on succeeding:

1. Know my outcome
2. Make a decision and get ready to change
3. Fail often, learn from my failures, and adjust quickly!
4. Keep on trying, keep on moving!

My Steps to Success

The first step to success is to have a vision, and my vision entails working on and improving my physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and financial well being. 90 Days to Change is a blog about my journey. I have the following goals:

1. Physical fitness - I will be using P90X as my starting point to change my body. P90X is a rigorous 90 day workout plan that includes comprehensive routines and nutritional instructions for unparalleled success. I will post before and after pictures, I will be conducting a benchmark test, and I will be following this plan to a "T" and change my body and my outlook on health and nutrition. As my physical state changes and improves, I know I will see a direct improvement with my emotional wellbeing as well.

2. Emotional well-being - I will be using Tony Robbin's "Personal Power", "Get the Edge" and a host of other personal well-being programs. "Get the Edge" is a 7 day program and "Personal Power" is a 25 day program. Thereafter, I will rely on Steven Covey's collection of audiobooks, Zig Ziglers audio programs and Brian Tracy's audio CDs. The combination of using theses lectures of the course of 90 days will indefinitely change my life. These CDs are popular and I believe in them.

I know once I can tackle the emotional state of my life, understand the reasons and motivations behind my actions, I can change and succeed in all other aspects of my life as well.

3. Spiritual well-being- This is going to be a bit trickier than the other two. In the realm of improving my imaan (belief) this requires the assistance of a teacher or a sheikh that takes you under his wings and helps you progress in the various Islamic Sciences. As of right now, I will be relying on memorizing surahs from the Quran, reading seerah, attending the Masjid more often and finally listening to recordings by Shk. Suhaib Webb, Imam Anwar Awlaqi, Shk. Hamza Yusuf, Imam Zaid Shakir and Dr. Imad Bayoun. God willing, this will help me gain momentum until I find a suitable halaqa (class) for myself.

4. Intellectual well-being- Intellectual well-being will probably involve aiming to get into good grad school program by studying for GRE's and GMAT's. Besides that, I will resort to reading and re-reading books dealing with Middle East politics, Vietnam War history, US politics and the like while studying for these standardized tests.

5. Financial well-being- Aaah, finances. For me, this is going to be the most interesting, fun and maybe most challenging aspect of this 90 day period. Without revealing too much, I have a few things up my sleeve and I will be implementing them to get some positive cash-flow coming in. Well, I guess I need to be detailed, but lets put it this way, I am doing some very unconventional things to arrive at my first goal: run a business. I have already purchased 70 Buzz Bite vending machines and from my calculations, once I have all 70 placed (no small feat, may I remind you), my business plan projects each machine to generated approximately $85-$100 per month in income. First goal is to get all machines placed ASAP! From there, I will have to focus on investing and re-investing that cash into other businesses.